1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a brake locking device useful with a conventional brake of a vehicle such as a bicycle, normally having a hand brake mounted on a handlebar assembly of the vehicle.
2. Description of the prior art.
Generally, in two-wheeled vehicles, conventionally steered by a handlebar assembly, as in bicycles, it is quite common to have a hand brake operatively mounted on the handlebar assembly in the area of at least one of the hand grips on the handlebar. Normally, such a hand brake comprises a lever which is pivotally mounted on the handlebar assembly in the area of at least one of the hand grips, so that the operator of the vehicle can conveniently grasp and compress the brake lever toward the hand grip of the handlebar assembly in order to engage or operate the brake.
Normally, hand brakes on vehicles such as bicycles, have not included a means to maintain a brake in a locked or engaged position when the vehicle is in the stopped condition and when left unattended by the operator.
Without such a locking mechanism it is easy for the front wheel of the bike to turn and, if the front wheel is unlocked, the bike will roll out under the front wheel and fall.
Two basic reasons as to why vehicles such as bicycles have not used such locking devices are excessive cost and interference of the normal service operation of the brake.
One prior art solution has been to provide a clip which is clipped between the body frame of the bicycle and the wheel. Such clips are not available for mountain bikes because the clearance between the body frame and the wheel is too great and the clips do not fit. Larger clips for mountain bikes are not currently available and, even if they were, their size would cause them to be bulky and unwieldy for practical use.
Other attempts to solve this problem can be seen in Schueler, U.S. Pat. No. 2,472,442; Carlson, U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,361; Yoshigai, U.S, Pat. No. 3,800,618; and Blancas, U.S. Pat. No. 4,653,613. However all of these attempts involved complicated and expensive mechanisms integrally formed and manufactured with the braking apparatus itself the excessive cost of such devices and their interference with normal service operation of the brakes are reasons why such devices are not in widespread use.